We won the first game at Wembley: Germany – England friendly

The big rivalry continues, although it might only be a onesided affair. Germany and England met at Wembley for the first time since Didi Hamann scored the last goal in the old stadium during a World Cup qualifier in 2000. There might have been the usual hype around such a match, but because it was a friendly and because there were a lot of players missing on both sides (Germany: Klose, Podolski, Gomez, Jansen, Frings, Ballack, Borowski – England: Rooney, Gerrard) noone really knew what to expect from both teams. Germany are well on top of their group in their campaign for a Euro2008 spot in Switzerland and Austria while England are struggling in their group. Germany have been playing fantastic football since the World Cup 2006 while England were so and so in eevry match they played. It seems that the enormous amount of talent assembled in the English team just doesn’t fit together as a team. They tried their luck without Beckham, that didn’t work out so they brought him back but the performances weren’t very convincing either. This being the outlines of the game I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

So with 1966 in the back of their heads (as usual) England got the better start by scoring on a mistake of Schalke defender and first time international player Christian Pander after 9 minutes. Germany had a lot of trouble adjusting to the game with a line up that never played together. Philipp Lahm was the screening defender in midfield, a part usually played by Thorsten Frings. He did well most of the time, but he, as well as his teammates, had a lot of trouble with Joe Cole who was always dangerous. After a few minutes Germany got a hold of the game and after a mistake by England keeper Paul Robinson Kuranyi was able to capitalize. Only a few minutes later the aformentioned Christian Pander scored a terrific goal from 30 metres range by hammering a shot past Robinson. The score stayed like this to the end, although England had a lot of chances in the 2nd half.

All in all it was a rather disappointing match but you always have to keep in mind that those were two teams who are still at the beginning of their seasons. Everything seemed to be a little slow.

Some highlights of the game, unfortunately with the horrible German commetary by Steffen Simon.